AMSTERDAM 3 Aug. (IPS) "If my grandfather would be alive now, he would have joined the rank of all the Iranians opposed to the present regime", a Dutch newspaper quoted Hojjatoleslam Hoseyn Khomeini, the nephew of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran as having stated.

In an interview carried Saturday by the Amsterdam-based "NCR Handelsblad", the nephew of the founder of the present Islamic Republic of Iran who now lives in Baghdad also expressed the hope to see the ongoing popular protest movement against the regime becoming a basis for "a great and surprising event that would happen in Iran in the near future".

Mr. Khomeini called for the establishment of a secular, democratic system in Iran and accused the present ruling ayatollahs of "abusing" Islam and the revolution for their own interests.

Opening "the lock off his mouth", Mr. Hoseyn Khomeini said though his grandfather left an "important legacy" in the form of the velayat faqih, or the rule of Juristconsult for his successors, yet, if he would be alive, he would have changed the system.

In the one-page interview carried in the Iraqi capital where the 45 years-old Khomeini has taken residence, Hoseyn said if the United States is the only nation that can bring freedom and democracy to Iran, he is ready to cooperate.

"Freedom must be for everyone and everywhere. If the Americans are the only ones capable to bring it for Iran, let them do, why not?" he told the paper.

He said if stability and democracy is returned to Iraq, all Iranians struggling for freedom in their homeland, "clerics as well as intellectuals and nationalists" could make Baghdad a base for their liberation movement.

Asked if the present leader of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i had been able to carry properly the legacy of his grandfather, the young Khomeini answered by the negative, pointing to the fact that Mr. Khamenehi lacked the rank, legitimacy and authority of the late Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini.

"He (Khamenehi), like the other ruling clerics are mediocre people who abuses of the name of Khomeini to legitimise their shameful rule, one of worst forms of religious dictatorship that governs by ruthless oppressive actions", he said.

Commenting of the present situation and the crackdown of the students protest movement, Mr. Khomeini said the people are "deeply deceived" and "extremely dissatisfied".

"The people see by themselves how they are unjustly treated and oppressed in the name of God, religion and the Shiites twelve imams and they dont want to see Islam be abused by clerical rulers who do not care less about Islam or the revolution. If my grandfather would have been alive, he would have been one of the first ones to join the protesters", he added with conviction.

Asked to comment on the situation of President Mohammad Khatami and his failed reforms, Mr. Khomeini said Mr. Khatami is "finished", having "no future".

"People have lost their fate and confidence with both the President and the reformists. Mr. Khatami could have been successful in the process of reforms, but his mission has ended in fiasco. He exists by name only", he observed.

Asked if he agrees with the majority of Iranian intellectuals and scholars who wants the religion be kept outside of the sphere of politics, he said secularism was one of his most important desires "both in religious and in political term".

"All political system must be based on the separation of religion from the state and anyway, until the return of the Shiites twelfth imam Mahdi, no one can rule in the name of God and Islam", he noted.

Asked about the present Iranian Islamic system of velayat faqih, Mr. Khomeini said this is something that must be reviews, adding that though the system was one of the "most important legacy his grandfather left for his successors, yet, "if he would have been alive and in regard of what is happening in the country, "he would have certainly changed it".

In an obvious effort to belittle Mr. Hoseyn Khomeinis declarations to NCR Handelsblad, the daily "Jomhoori Eslami (Islamic Republic) that belongs to the leader of the regime said the Grand Ayatollah had ordered his nephew from talking politics, "knowing his eccentricities". ENSD HOSEYN KHOMEINI INTERVIEW 3803